Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 30 June 1990 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS: 731102 PM>MM; POSSIBLY CAPT'D

SYNOPSIS: SP4 Walter A. Cichon was assigned to Company A, 3rd Battalion, 8th
Infantry, 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam. On March 30, 1968, SP4 Cichon was
serving as a rifleman in a rifle company in Kontum Province, South Vietnam. His
company came under enemy fire while attempting to seize a hill about 15 miles
southwest of the city of Dak To. SP4 Cichon received a head wound, was examined
and left for dead as his unit was forced to withdraw under enemy pressure.

A later body-recovery team located and extracted the bodies of the dead, but was
unable to locate the body of Walter Cichon.

On April 20, 1968, two NVA ralliers stated that they had heard from friends that
their battalion had captured an American with a head wound on or about March 26.
The ralliers gave a detailed description of the POW which closely matched SP4
Cichon. The ralliers stated that the prisoner was taken to a hospital in the
vicinity of the South Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia border area.

When 591 American POWs were released at the end of the war, Walter Cichon was
not among them. The U.S. assumed at that time that he had not been captured at
all. Military officials at the time, were dismayed that hundreds of men known or
suspected to have been captured were not released.

Intelligence reports surfacing over the years during the war and following build
a strong case for a well-organized second prison system, and a well-orchestrated
plan to keep prisoners within systems from intermingling. As it is widely
believed that the Vietnamese withheld the release of many prisoners until peace
agreement terms were met (specifically reconstruction aid), it is logical to
assume that one prison system's inmates were released while another were held
back for possible release at a later date. It is also logical to assume that the
scenario might be played to its fullest, including convincing each man in a two
man crew that had been separated, that the other was dead.

The U.S. has never given Vietnam the reconstruction aid pledged by President
Nixon. The governments of Southeast Asia continue deny any knowledge of Walter
Cichon and many hundreds more Americans still missing in Southeast Asia.

Walter Cichon is among nearly 2500 Americans who remain missing in Indochina.
Unlike "MIAs" from other wars, most of these men can be accounted for.
Tragically, over 10,000 reports concerning Americans prisoner, missing or
unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. since the end
of the war. Experts say that the evidence is overwhelming that Americans were
left behind in enemy hands. One of them could be Walter Cichon.

During the period he was maintained prisoner of war, Walter Cichon was promoted
to the rank of Staff Sergeant.